Portable exercise apparatus

ABSTRACT

A portable exercise apparatus is provided for use in exercise while protecting the user&#39;s wrists. The exercise apparatus comprises an elongated cord which has opposite first and second ends. A ring element connects at the first end of the cord and adapts to pass through the second end of the cord to secure to an anchor. Further, a pair of handles connects to the second end of the cord.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/702,272 filed on Jul. 23, 2018, entitled “PORTABLE EXERCISE APPARATUS”, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for all that is taught and disclosed therein.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to a portable athletic apparatus specifically for use in exercise, which protects a user's wrists.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Athletes use strength training exercise regularly in order to mitigate injuries associated with the practice of their respective sporting events, such as for example cycling, soccer, running, football, baseball, tennis and the like.

Many sports injuries are a direct result of not properly strengthening the underlying muscles to support the body's various joints, ligaments and tendons. For example, the muscle on the front of the thigh, called the quadriceps, directly protect the knee joint from injury. Weak quadriceps muscles will not properly support a knee joint when the athlete is attempting to execute an athletic maneuver, such as a lateral move, because the quadriceps provide structural support and strength to the knee joint and associated ligaments and tendons.

Similarly, shoulder joints, elbow joints, ankle joints, and the like depend directly for structural stability on the surrounding muscular strength and flexibility. In another example, avid tennis player can experience elbow, shoulder and wrist injuries if the underlying supporting muscles are not properly strengthened.

Therefore, it is vital for athletes, both professional and amateur, to properly strengthen muscles in the body, which is often done through weight lifting.

Additionally, when an injury occurs, the physical therapy associated with the recovery process often times includes slowing working at strengthening the muscle groups around the injured portion of the body. However, even during strength training, bodily injury can occur, for which the need exists to support portions of the body involved with such strength training to avoid injury. The limitations of the prior art are addressed by providing a portable exercise apparatus for use in exercise while protecting the user's wrists. The exercise apparatus comprises an elongated cord which has opposite first and second ends. A ring element connects at the first end of the cord and adapts to pass through the second end of the cord to secure to an anchor. Further, a pair of handles connects to the second end of the cord.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1-11 show various views of a preferred embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Embodiments of the present disclosure will be more readily understood by reference to the following figures, in which like reference numbers and designations indicate like elements.

Referring now primarily to FIG. 1, one exemplary embodiment of a portable exercise apparatus for a user is now described. It will be appreciated that the portable exercise apparatus is adapted to displace a force incident upon a user's wrists, wherein such force may be exerted by an object for which the user desires to lift for muscle strengthening purposes. Such objects may include, inter alia, a barbell, dumbbell, rock, or a weight. The portable exercise apparatus is designed to be used to protect a user's wrist muscles, ligaments and tendons. As will be described further herein below, the portable exercise apparatus displaces the force due to the weight of the object away from the user's wrists and onto the portable exercise apparatus.

As shown in FIG. 1, the portable exercise apparatus comprises a first grip element 102, a second grip element 104, a shaft element 106, and an affixing element 108. The first grip element 102 is adapted to fit circumferentially around a first one of a user's wrist region. The second grip element 104, which is mechanically coupled to the first grip element 102, is adapted to fit circumferentially around a second one of the user's wrist regions. It will be appreciated that the first grip element 102 and the second grip element 104 are composed of a strong, but flexible material, such that mechanical force which would otherwise be primarily incident upon the user's wrists is absorbed partially by the first and second grip elements.

A shaft element 106 is operatively coupled to the first grip element 102 and the second grip element 104, as illustrated in FIG. 1. It will be appreciated that the operative coupling is mechanical in nature and may be designed such that affixing these elements may be achieved in a variety of ways. In one embodiment, the shaft element 106 is composed of materials with a higher spring constant than the first grip element 102 and the second grip element 104, because greater force will be incident upon the shaft element 106. That is, the shaft element 106 should be composed of materials which can effectively absorb the cumulative force which is distributed between the first grip element 102 and the second grip element 104, as such force is more concentrated upon the shaft element 106. It will be appreciated that the design of the shaft element 106 further provides a displacement of force from the user's wrists by absorbing such force. The shaft element 106 may vary in length from a few inches, to a few feet, as required by the user. An affixing element 108, is mechanically coupled to the shaft element 106. The affixing element 108 is adapted to affix to an object for which the user desires to lift, such as for example a barbell, dumbbell, weight, rock, etc. as shown in FIG. 4. Although the affixing element 108 contains some flexibility to absorb an object's weight, it will be appreciated that there will be less flexibility than the other elements of the present invention.

In one embodiment, the shaft element 106 comprises a telescoping portion, such that the user may dynamically lengthen or shorten an operational length of the shaft element 106 of the portable exercise apparatus. In another variation, a chain link kind of embodiment may be used to shorten or lengthen the shaft element 106. Other variations include use of carabineers, and/or a belt type configuration, herein the shaft element 106 comprises a pin and holes such that the pin may be configurable to put through different holes to vary the length of the shaft element 106 and/or the affixing element 108.

Alternative variations of the first grip element 102, the second grip element 104, the shaft element 106 and/or the affixing element 108 may comprise a cable, such as for example a steal/rope type cable, either alone or in conjunction with a fabric.

It will be appreciated that the portable exercise apparatus may be used either in a traditional weightlifting scenario, such as for example in a gym, or even when a user is not in a gym, but wishes to use other objects to perform strengthening exercises when not in a gym, such as attaching the affixing element 108 to a book, box, rock, mailbox, or literally any other object which may provide a resistive force. Indeed, a user could also use the present invention to wrap around a beam or pull up bar (as illustrated in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3) to perform pull-ups, ring dips, etc, in a safer manner, because the force on the user's wrists will be partially absorbed by the portable exercise apparatus, thereby reducing the risk of injury to the user.

Additional variations of embodiments of the present teachings include construction of any of the above-mentioned elements of, inter alia, a soft flexible material, foamy material, gel material, or semi-rigid material.

As illustrated in FIG. 5, the shaft element 106 may be eliminated entirely, in order to have a larger affixing portion 108.

FIG. 6 illustrates components of the exercise apparatus which consist of two handles, one hook, and one belt with adjustable tightening function to grab any object of weight, such objects may include, backpacks, rolled up carpet, mail box etc. The materials used for handle bars are soft, foamy and moisture wicking and any generic gym cable or machine cable made of steel or rope can be used for the hook or belt.

FIG. 7 shows wrist protectors which are made with a small pouch, a hard-external shell and soft internal foaming to protect the two boney sides of the wrists called the “scaphoid” and “pisiform” and around the carpal's region.

The inside of the grips consists of coil springs as seen in FIGS. 8 through 10, and sand/foam material on the outside to cover the coil springs. An extra supporting piece of fabric strap is provided to go across the users backhand on the grips for extra handling support.

Flexible gym cable type material as shown in FIG. 11, go through the hand grips' interior, with the cable being covered by a compression metal spring also illustrated in FIG. 11, and sand/gel type material to provide flexibility and comfort. The exterior of the grips is covered by moisture wicking fabric commonly used for various types of sports. Additionally, an extra piece of strap (2 velcro adjustable strap pieces) is attached to the grip, allowing extra adaptable support to wrap around the user's backhand while using the grips. The pair of grips will come with 2 other sets of gym cable with metal hooks on one end and a round circular cable on the other end (the round circular cable end only needs to be big enough for the metal hooks end to go through to allow users to tie the cable to anything with a hook essentially). The first set of cable is short, allowing users to attach it to sand bags or other objects of weights to use as curling devices for training; the short cable can also be attached onto pull-up bars for users to perform “ring-up”, a much tougher exercise than the typical “pull-ups” performed by athletes. The second set of cable is long, allowing users to tie it pull up bars to the pull-up bars to perform “ring-dips”, a tougher version of the traditional dips exercise on stable metal bars. The flexibility of the grips will also alleviate wrist pains that lifters using traditional dumbbells often experience due to the inflexibility of the metal bar design in dumbbells, which currently does not allow equal pressure and weight distribution across the user's wrists.

The foregoing description illustrates exemplary implementations, and novel features, of aspects of a portable exercise apparatus. Alternative implementations are suggested, but it is impractical to list all alternative implementations of the present teachings. Therefore, the scope of the presented disclosure should be determined only by reference to the appended claims, and should not be limited by features illustrated in the foregoing description except insofar as such limitation is recited in an appended claim.

While the above description has pointed out novel features of the present disclosure as applied to various embodiments, the skilled person will understand that various omissions, substitutions, permutations, and changes in the form and details of the present teachings illustrated may be made without departing from the scope of the present teachings.

Each practical and novel combination of the elements and alternatives described hereinabove, and each practical combination of equivalents to such elements, is contemplated as an embodiment of the present teachings. Because many more element combinations are contemplated as embodiments of the present teachings than can reasonably be explicitly enumerated herein, the scope of the present teachings is properly defined by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description. All variations coming within the meaning and range of equivalency of the various claim elements are embraced within the scope of the corresponding claim. Each claim set forth below is intended to encompass any apparatus or method that differs only insubstantially from the literal language of such claim, as long as such apparatus or method is not, in fact, an embodiment of the prior art. To this end, each described element in each claim should be construed as broadly as possible, and moreover should be understood to encompass any equivalent to such element insofar as possible without also encompassing the prior art. Furthermore, to the extent that the term “includes” is used in either the detailed description or the claims, such term is intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term “comprising”. 

I claim:
 1. A portable exercise apparatus for a user, adapted to displace a force incident on a user's wrists, comprising: a first grip element, adapted to fit circumferentially around one of the user's wrists; a second grip element, adapted to fit circumferentially around a second one of the user's wrists; a shaft element, mechanically coupled to the first grip element, mechanically coupled to the second grip element; an affixing element, operatively coupled to the shaft element.
 2. The portable exercise apparatus of claim 1, wherein the shaft element further comprises a telescoping portion, adapted to vary an operational length of the portable exercise apparatus.
 3. A portable exercise apparatus for a user, adapted to minimize a force incident on a user's wrists, comprising: a first grip element, adapted to fit circumferentially around one of the user's wrists; a second grip element, adapted to fit circumferentially around one of the user's wrists; an affixing element, operatively coupled to the shaft element.
 4. The portable exercise apparatus of claim 3, wherein the shaft element further comprises a telescoping portion, adapted to vary an operational length of the portable exercise apparatus.
 5. A portable exercise method for a user, adapted to minimize a force incident on a user's wrists, comprising: providing a first grip element, adapted to fit circumferentially around one of the user's wrists; providing a second grip element, adapted to fit circumferentially around one of the user's wrists; providing a shaft element, mechanically coupled to the first grip element, mechanically coupled to the second grip element; providing an affixing element, operatively coupled to the shaft element.
 6. The portable exercise method of claim 5, wherein the shaft element further comprises providing a telescoping portion, adapted to vary an operational length of the portable exercise apparatus. 